So now the CRA is going after infants?

As the world’s media reports on the Panama Papers exposing wealthy tax cheats, a Canadian bank and the Canada Revenue Agency prepare to hand a Canadian baby’s financial records to a foreign government.

The bank told the wee “valued customer” that information on her small account may be reported to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). “In turn, CRA will share information with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS).” The letter directed the girl — whose name we’re keeping confidential to protect her privacy — to complete, sign and mail forms.

And why is TD going after a client too young to walk or talk. Because, according to the letter, “her place of birth is the United States.”

She was born in the U.S. last year while her Canadian parents were working there. But because both parents are Canadian citizens, their child has been a Canadian citizen from the day she was born. But because of where she was born, the U.S. Congress, U.S. Treasury and IRS insist they have the right to seize her private financial records — and those of and anyone else born in the U.S.

This little girl doesn’t even have enough money in her account to pay the US $2,350 fee to renounce American citizenship. Even if she did have the funds, the U.S. won’t allow her to renounce it until she’s 18. They also won’t allow her parents to renounce it on her behalf.

Shockingly, Canada’s government agreed to America’s demands to invade this girl’s privacy — and that of one million other Canadians. Before she was born, the previous Conservative government signed a deal with the U.S. in 2014 making discrimination against one group of Canadians mandatory. The Conservatives — over strong dissent from the Liberals and NDP — passed an unprecedented law overriding all Canadian laws on a foreign government’s behalf.

It’s time for Canada to refuse to surrender this child’s personal financial information, and that of other law-abiding Canadians, to a foreign bully under the pretence of combating tax evasion.

The Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires Canadian banks and other financial organizations to ferret out Canadians whom the U.S. deems to be “U.S. persons” and report them and their sensitive financial information to CRA, which then passes it over to the IRS. One Conservative MP called Canadian citizens born in U.S. “American citizens abiding here in Canada.”

Canadians expect Parliament to speak for Canada. So Canadians born in the U.S. were relieved to hear Justin Trudeau declare during the election campaign, and after becoming prime minister, that “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian”.

They naively trusted Trudeau when he wrote in a letter that “the Liberal Party of Canada believes that the Conservative government’s efforts to safeguard the privacy of Canadians have been inadequate … The Government of Canada has a responsibility to stand up for its citizens when foreign governments are encroaching on their rights.”

Many Canadians hoped Liberals would repeal the FATCA IGA, or adopt an amendment to the FATCA Implementation Act introduced by Liberal MP Scott Brison to protect Canadian citizens and residents.

That amendment could stop what Brison called the FATCA “dragnet” catching one million Canadians. It could end what prominent Liberal MPs described as an “attack on our privacy … dangerous … dirty work of the IRS” and a violation of “the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

That amendment could end a lawsuit launched by two Canadian women and funded through the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (ADCS), with the help of $600,000 raised by Canadians and international supporters. Yet Trudeau and the Liberal MPs who spoke strenuously against FATCA have fallen silent.

Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier falsely asserts that passing information on Canadians’ assets, account balances, account numbers, transactions and other personal matters to a foreign nation with few security controls is merely an “information exchange.”

Brison — now Treasury Board president — told iPolitics he was endorsing the deal. “Child of the Charter” Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is fighting Canadians standing up for their Charter rights.

It’s time for Canada to stop letting wealthy tax cheats evade taxes through offshore accounts. It’s time for Canada to refuse to surrender this child’s personal financial information, and that of other law-abiding Canadians, to a foreign bully under the pretence of combating tax evasion.

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Lynne Swanson is a retired human resources professional, writer and blogger. She is chair of the Legal Challenge Committee of the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, she has been a Canadian citizen for 43 years.